D&D (2024) Kobold Press posts 2024 DMG Hit Piece

[Parmandur]

4E tried that with the Dungeon Master's Guide 2, which had:

• Advice for storytelling techniques, such as failing forward, the "yes, and" technique, and vignettes.
• A section on collaborative homebrew setting creation ("yes, and" applied to letting players establish details about the world during a session).
• Sets of themed bolt-on abilities to help make different creatures feel like part of the same faction.
• New environmental effects to make combat more challenging.
• A set of interactive terrain rules (like rope swings and crumbling pillars that can be pushed over).
• Sidekick NPC rules.

That's what comes to mind immediately.

Notably, the DMG 2 was a disaster for WotC.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Notably, the DMG 2 was a disaster for WotC.

Do you have a source for this?

 

[mamba]

Notably, the DMG 2 was a disaster for WotC.

in what way, sales? Might have been the trajectory of 4e too, it came out relatively late in the timeline (granted, it is a compressed timeline, 4e failed fast), closer to the beginning of Essentials than the 4e line.

For Essentials to come out about a year later, the writing must have already been on the wall by the time DMG2 got released

 

[Parmandur]

Do you have a source for this?

in what way, sales? Might have been the trajectory of 4e too, it came out relatively late in the timeline (granted, it is a compressed timeline, 4e failed fast), closer to the beginning of Essentials than the 4e line.

For Essentials to come out about a year later, the writing must have already been on the wall by the time DMG2 got released

Yeah, sales-wise. Mike Mearls talked about it a bit in the Happy Fun Hour back in the day, why WotC would never do a book called "PHB 2" or "DMG 2" again because they tanked, and apparently per their market research confused customers enough to depress sales of the original Core three.

 

[mamba]

WotC would never do a book called "PHB 2" or "DMG 2" again because they tanked, and apparently per their market research confused customers

Advanced DMG then

 

[Parmandur]

Advanced DMG then

They wanted to call the 5E core books Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but discovered Advanced was a turnoff to customers.

 

[Morrus]

They wanted to call the 5E core books Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but discovered Advanced was a turnoff to customers.

Really? If so, I missed that completely when I was reporting on it. They wanted to call 5E ‘Advsnced D&D’?

Forgive me if I say that sounds unlikely. But I’m happy to be pored wrong!

 

[Parmandur]

Really? If so, I missed that completely when I was reporting on it. They wanted to call 5E ‘Advsnced D&D’?

Forgive me if I say that sounds unlikely. But I’m happy to be pored wrong!

Again, that was from Mearls years later: they did call the free version of the rules Basic Dungeons & Dragons.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Yeah, sales-wise. Mike Mearls talked about it a bit in the Happy Fun Hour back in the day, why WotC would never do a book called "PHB 2" or "DMG 2" again because they tanked, and apparently per their market research confused customers enough to depress sales of the original Core three.

If adding a 2 to a title confused people then I don't see how releasing a second set of 5E core books for 2024 with the exact same names as the 2014 core books won't be even more confusing.

 

[Micah Sweet]

How do you bridge that gap?

What gap?